Strawberries vs. Weeds: Our 2-Year Strategy

Growing crops outdoors is a constant struggle with weeds, and sometimes they get the upper hand — temporarily. That’s why our strawberry plants get plowed under after just two harvests, when the weeds in that patch become too aggressive to contain.

Each May, we plant an acre of strawberry plants and tend them carefully for an entire season, weeding, fertilizing and pinching their blossoms to prepare them for their first harvest the following year.

Each season’s harvest comes from one-year-old plants and two-year-old plants.
At the end of the harvest, the two-year-old plants — and the weeds that would choke them in year three — are plowed under to await next May’s fresh planting.
The one-year-old plants are cut back, watered, fertilized and generally pampered in order to provide a plentiful, delicious harvest in their second and final year.